Chapter 3: Christmas Fever

A/N: Well, the good news is that I did end up being able to update!

The bad news is that my head hurts like crazy from so much forced writing—but not that you care anyways. -_-

Enjoy!

The first thing that Kagome noticed upon waking was that she was warm. Like, really warm. And she'd been sleeping in an odd position.

Her chocolate-brown eyes slowly opened…

…and met the sleeping face of Inuyasha. His arms were wrapped around her waist, and she was sitting on his lap.

Kagome froze. Then, once what was happening sank in, she blushed furiously. "I-INUYASHAAAAAA!" she screamed, pushing him away to stand on the floor, face growing even more red from the exertion from screaming.

Inuyasha's eyes snapped open from the sudden noise, and he fell off the bed with a cry. He jumped up after landing on the floor. "What?! Wuzzat?!"

Kagome's death glare immediately let him know what was happening. "Inuyashaaaaaa…" she whispered, voice deadly low.

He gulped.

"SIT-SIT-SIT-SIT-SIT-SIT-SIT-SIT-SIT-SIT-SIT-SIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT!"

Inuyasha repeatedly face-planted.

The sound of gasping interrupted the screaming. Inuyasha yanked his head out of the indent in the floor to stare at Kagome, whose face was a deep, sickly red. She panted loudly.

Inuyasha stood up slowly. "…Kagome? Are you… OK?"

Kagome collapsed to the floor to a kneeling position.

"Kagome!" he cried, dashing over to her side.

She breathed heavily. "No—" she wheezed through gasps, "It's—al—right. I—I'm fine. Just… just…" she trailed off as she began to cough wildly.

Inuyasha stared at her, face haunted. "She's going to make herself sick…" he recalled Mrs. Higurashi saying.

He wordlessly crouched down and scooped up the young girl, who was still coughing weakly, in his arms. Kagome shivered and leaned into him slightly. She's so fragile… Inuyasha thought, dismayed. So small, so weak, so frail… The cold did this to her…

He forlornly looked down at Kagome, who was curled up tightly in his arms, trembling, revealing just how sick she really was. Kagome… I promised to protect you… I'm sorry…

When Inuyasha walked into the kitchen with Kagome in his arms, he'd wanted to talk to her mother about what to do. He hadn't expected what happened next.

Grandpa Higurashi had been in the kitchen making himself breakfast when he looked and saw the two. He gaped in horror.

"You wicked demon!" he shrieked. "You've placed a curse on my daughter! Die, wretched demon! DIE!" He threw an exorcism paper at Inuyasha, which stuck to his forehead.

Inuyasha was silent for a moment before shuffling Kagome to one arm and using his now-free hand to rip it off. "Sheesh, old man," he said, bored. "You seriously need to learn how to use those properly. Seriously, Miroku uses them better than you, and he's the least pure monk I've ever seen… aside from his master, anyways."

Inuyasha dropped the fail of an exorcism to the ground and waltzed past Kagome's grandpa, who gawked at the ripped exorcism paper on the ground.

"Ooooh! Onii-san!" Souta chirped, running up to Inuyasha. Then he noticed his older sister. "Oh, no, Kagome!" he cried. "If she gets sick now, then she'll be sick for Christmas!"

Inuyasha paused again, then sighed. "Oi, Souta. Where's your mom?"

Souta thought a moment. "She's decorating the tree right now."

"Thanks, kid." He walked past him and headed to the tree.

"Oi."

Kagome's mom looked up, then gasped upon seeing her daughter in the disgruntled state she was in; apparently, she'd fallen asleep sometime during the trek to find her mother, and she moaned as she slowly opened her eyes.

"Kagome!" Mrs. Higurashi exclaimed. "Oh, you shouldn't have gone out last night!" She stood and approached them, and placed her hand on Kagome's forehead. "You've got a fever, dear. You need to stay in bed today, and Souta and I will work on the tree."

Kagome's eyes grew wide with worry. "Oh, no, Mama! I told you I'd—" She broke off to a coughing fit.

Her mother sighed. "Inuyasha?" she asked, looking up at him. "Can you please take her back to her room again? I'll make some soup and get her some medicine, but she needs to stay in bed…"

He nodded and took Kagome up to her room.

Inuyasha set her down on her bed, covering her with her blankets. "Oi, Kagome," he commented after she was comfortably settled with him standing next to the bed.

She looked up at him. Her chocolate-brown eyes glimmered in the dim light, and she looked beautiful despite how ill she was. "Mm-hm?" she murmured, yawning a bit.

"You…" He hesitated. "You really shouldn't push yourself so hard. Other people can help you, ya know."

Kagome smiled a bit. Something told her that wasn't what he'd really wanted to say, but she didn't mind. She was just content to be in his company, and she'd said it before; she wanted to stay by his side, even if he was still in love with Kikyo, despite how much it hurt.

"I know, Inuyasha," she replied, shifting so she was resting on her elbow. Kagome sighed. "It's just that… well, I guess I'm scared. I… I've felt useless, and… well…" Her face darkened. "You said it yourself; if it wasn't for me, then you could be off finding Naraku. I'm just in the way—"

Inuyasha cut her off with surprising anger. "Don't even think that!"

Kagome's eyes widened, and she stared, confused.

Inuyasha paused, and his face grew a little red. "Well… It's just… It's just…"

Kagome leaned in a little closer. "Hm?"

Inuyasha subconsciously followed her example. "Well…"

Suddenly they were separated only by inches of air. Their eyes slowly closed and they leaned in even closer—

The door opened. "Onii-san!"

Kagome and Inuyasha leapt away from each other, hearts pounding like crazy. Kagome hid her head under her pillow, the blood rushing to her face. Wh…What was THAT about?! she thought, barely controlling her gasps. He… he almost… He almost…!

Inuyasha, on the other hand, tried to ignore his pounding heart and probably red face as he listened to what Souta had to say, but he was silently screaming, YOU RUINED THE MOMENT!

After Souta left, and after their pulses grew steady once more, Inuyasha approached the girl who was reluctantly pulling her head out of her pillow. "Your mom needs me to go help with the tree."

Kagome met his gaze. "I… see…"

Inuyasha hesitated before adding, "And she's gonna come in here with your… ah, whatchamacallits later, but you need to stay in bed."

She sighed. "Yeah, yeah… I get it."

They were both silent for a moment before Inuyasha nodded and dashed out of the room, leaving Kagome alone for the rest of the day.

A/N: This was a much more dramatic chapter than the previous have been, but I'm trying to lean more towards the "ROMANCE" part of it now, even though Inuyasha became pretty OOC.

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And by the way, next chapter's the end! Enjoy!